Awesome Sailfishing

Report Date: January 26, 2009

What an outstanding couple of weeks of sailfishing in Miami. The past two weeks have been awesome. We had a stretch of four days that we caught 45 sailfish in 4 days. We started off with a perfect score of catching 9 sailfish out of 9 hookups. That was followed by 12 out 17, 14 of 17 and 10 for 12. Obviously getting that many bites each day is great, but I am ecstatic that we are not losing a lot of fish. Most of the time when you are getting that many shots in a day, you are also getting quite a few multiples. It is not uncommon to hook doubles, triples and even quads (4 fish on at one time). The key is to try to remain calm but at the same time make sure that the lines stay separated. It is a coordinated effort of all the anglers and myself. Usually I can see where the fish are going and instruct my anglers to what the fish are doing. There is a lot of excitement in having a few fish on at one time and a sense of accomplishment when you catch them all. Yesterday we had a triple and a double with only 2 anglers on board and we managed to catch all them.

The sailfishing right now is awesome but you do have to have the right conditions. A northern type wind with blue water and north current is the best. Lately the current has been on the slow side but still north and the water has been a little bit dirty, but there are still fish around. On the other hand there are going to be days when the wind and water are not favorable, and then catching one or two sails might be a challenge. The good news is that we have caught a sailfish on every one of our trips for probably a month or longer.

Besides sailfish, there have been a few dolphin around, but not in any big numbers. I expect that to change next month as we are going to start to see some bigger dolphin in the kite spread. Kings have also been hit or miss. There has been some good bottom fishing for groupers and snappers. Those fish tend to like the same conditions that the sailfish like with north current and blue water and we tend to be sailfishing during those conditions.

There has not been a lot heard on swordfishing either day or night. Most people have stayed on the edge to capitalize on the sailfish bite. I do have some sword trips booked for next month and February is usually a very good month for swordfish.

I have some dates open this month, including this weekend (should be great sailfish conditions after a cold front with north wind). I also have some open dates in February, so give me a call and let’s catch some fish.

Tight Lines,
Capt. Dean Panos

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